Create a Grocery Saving Notebook

Keeping track of the lowest price you have paid for grocery and household items can save you hundreds of dollars a year. For instance, before creating my notebook we often paid $2.99 a pound for boneless chicken breasts. We were ecstatic when it was on sale for $1.79 a pound, but we never knew when that would be, and we could only afford to buy one or two packages to last us until the next time we went shopping. Once I started the notebook though, we realized we could save money by waiting for the sale and then buying enough to last until the next sale, this way we can afford to buy more, and we spend less money! A simple notebook will help you do the same for your family!

First grab a simple small notebook, you can get them for 50 cents at Walmart or just create a file on your computer. After you go shopping this week save your receipt and start filling in your notebook. Do it in pencil so you can replace prices when you find lower ones. These are the columns you need: Item (Chicken), Cost (1.79), Size (lb), Where (Giant). That’s it! By using your notebook and your grocery store flyers, which are usually mailed to households or available in your local newspaper and of course at the store, you can keep track of where the lowest prices are and when, and shop accordingly.

Some people say that driving to different stores isn’t worth the cost. I don’t believe this at all. Just on my chicken sample, and these are the real prices we pay, let’s say we buy about 10 pounds of chicken a month. If we shop at one store and pay their price of $2.99 a pound we are spending $29.90 a month, but if we drive a mile down the road and buy it for $1.79 a pound, we are saving $12. It certainly doesn’t cost me $12 to drive a mile and it only takes me an additional 30 minutes or so. Combine the savings on the chicken along with our other grocery savings and you can see how worthwhile it is!

Part of the Womens-Finance Budget Challenge!